He won the first ever swimming medal for India in 50-metre freestyle in the Commonwealth Games last October, and went on to bag two medals in the Asian Games in the para events in Guangzhou. Prasanta Karmakar may be busy preparing for the London Paralympics in 2012, but misses the experience of competing in the National Games.
The 22-year-old Karmakar made a request to the secretary general of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA),
Randhir Singh, in a recent meeting, to consider having para events in the future National Games.
Quite pleased with the Haryana government treating the para athletes on par with the Asian Games medallists during the awards function, Karmakar wondered whether the Union Sports Ministry would do the same.
He did get a cheque for Rs. 6 lakh for the bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games, the standard norm for all bronze medals, from the Union Government, but has been hinted that the Asian Para Games may not fetch rewards on par with the medals in the Asian Games.
Promised a job by the Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, Karmakar he was not happy to be told by the authorities subsequently that the job would not fetch him any advantage of sports quota and could only be of class ‘IV' category.
“Archer Rahul Banerjee was also promised a job by the Railway Minister on the same platform in Kolkata, and he was given a good job promptly before the Asian Games. I don't want a job, but at least allocate two per cent of sports quota in the Railways to para athletes,'' pleaded Karmakar, who was in the Capital recently to inaugurate an inter-college sports meet organised by Equal Opportunities Cell.
Confident
Quite confident about qualifying for the London 2012 Paralympics, Karmakar said that he was grateful for the rewards, but was looking for a sponsor who would help him meet the overall expenses of about 50,000 rupees per month at his training base in Bangalore.
“I have been studying my videos with experts and know that I can cut a lot of time from 27.48 that I clocked in the Commonweath Games. With good support,
I am confident of bettering the world record some day,'' said Karmakar.
The world record in the S9 category, 25.33 seconds was clocked by Mathew Cowdrey of Australia on way to the gold in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
“I need an explosive start, and need to tune better. I am training hard to get better,'' said Karmakar.
